NCERT notified as institute deemed-to-be university by Education Ministry

The Education Ministry has issued a notification declaring the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), as an institution deemed to be a university, enabling it to offer courses/programmes and confer degrees.

In the notification dated March 30, 2026, the Ministry said that the University Grants Commission (UGC) had approved the expert committee’s recommendations to grant deemed university status to the NCERT — a nodal school education body — in January this year, following which the Ministry declared the NCERT as one.

The notification confers this status on the NCERT, along with its six regional institutes, provided that a list of conditions is met.

These conditions prevent the NCERT from indulging in any activities that are “commercial” and “profit-making” in nature, and mandate that all academic courses or programmes must conform to the norms and standards prescribed by the UGC and the concerned statutory bodies or councils.

The notification also mandated the NCERT to start new programmes, off-campus or on offshore campuses, “only in accordance with the norms and guidelines issued by the UGC, from time to time, on the subject.” Further, the Ministry has said that the NCERT “shall take appropriate steps” to begin research programmes, doctoral programmes, and “innovative academic programmes”.

It added that the institute must not confine itself to what are currently the new emerging areas, but also “endeavour” to expand into other domains that are in accordance with UGC guidelines and regulations and the National Education Policy of 2020.

The Ministry has further said that the NCERT must take all the measures required to get its academic programmes and courses rated for accreditation by the National Board of Accreditation, and for the Institute itself to be accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

The government has also mandated the NCERT to start participating in annual rankings of institutes issued by the National Institutional Ranking Framework and has asked it to “compulsorily” create Academic Bank of Credits (ABC), identities of its students, and upload their credit scores in digital lockers that can be reflected in the ABC portal.